Unwieldy `Hunchback' proves some risks shouldn't be taken

September 19, 2002|By Chris Jones, Tribune arts reporter.

Fighting the good fight as a little Chicago theater can take its emotional toll. And from time to time, the regular theatergoer in this city witnesses the occasional off-Loop artist erupt in a strange mixture of emotionalism, creativity and anger.

I'm not entirely clear who wrote "Nicholas DeBeaubien's The Hunchback of Notre Dame," the latest original production from the long-established Defiant Theatre. This is an original play within a play -- vaguely in the "Marat/Sade" vein -- and so the authorship is credited to the fictional Mr. DeBeaubien. Since that narrating character is played by Christopher Johnson, Defiant's artistic director, one suspects that this is all Johnson's doing (it would fit with the tone of some of his past works). Yet in Defiant's season brochure, reference is made to several other individuals who apparently did "additional writing." So who knows.

As it has happens, there's not much reason to care. In the tiny A Red Orchid Theatre, three actors do a self-aware take on "Hunchback" that's peppered with metatheater. At various points in the night, the audience is made to sing and then berated for being made up of wealthy suburban individuals, critics and the Jeff Committee are pilloried, and individuals are dragged on stage. The DeBeaubien character shrieks about the agony of the creative process and generally attacks the other three actors -- the stellar Defiant regulars Will Schutz, Larry Fine and Lisa Rothschiller.

There are some funny moments -- most notably Schutz's guy-with-a-hump shtick -- but this is mainly an unwieldy and lame game of insider pool.

Many of Defiant's terrific past shows have attracted national attention -- and this company's political awareness and its willingness to take risks is far too precious to waste on this kind of internal gazing at its own artistic navel.